Conspiracies
by Tigerliliee
Summary: Luna Lovegood always thought her mother died in a potions accident, but did she really? Or was it something far more sinister?    - Two-part story.
1. Part 1: The Rumour

She watched her pen scribble away; the rhythmic scratching on the parchment was almost soothing. A way-ward piece of blonde hair fell in front of her large glasses and as she kept writing, more and more untamed curls fell down from her bun.

Elowen Lovegood was the head writer at the Quibbler, her stories always made it to the front page, and why wouldn't they? Elowen was married to the Editor of this Newspaper, and he always thought her stories were magnificent.

This didn't create a particularly happy atmosphere with her fellow writers; they believed she was only doing so well because of her connections. When Elowen was pregnant with their daughter, Luna, she had about five spells put on her a day. It's a wonder she wasn't born with antlers.

"Here's the newest headline," She said walking up to her husband, Xenophilius Lovegood, "The ministry wants to try to capture all the Thestrals, they believe the funny little creatures are bad luck."

"You and your obsession with the Thestrals," laughed Xeno, "I still hope that one day I too will be able to see them, as then we would have something to keep as a pet for Luna."

Elowen kissed her husband on the cheek, leaving him the freshly written paper.

"One should not wish for a death, my dear, fate can be incredibly cruel." She replied, twirling out the door of the building.

Elowen was one of the few people who were able to see the Thestrals. Her twin sister had died when she was a teenager, by the hand of her own jealous boyfriend. Elowen was walking next to her when it happened, and as they were twins the young boy couldn't tell the difference. She tried not to blame herself, but the Thestrals were a constant reminder of that day.

Outside, a stocky photographer was whispering to a circle of staff as they enjoyed their lunch break.

"It's only a whisper going around, but apparently "You-know-who" has risen!"

Elowen turned around swiftly, not bearing to eavesdrop; she walked up and joined the small group.

"I've heard the same thing!" Shouted a thin woman, "I've heard that he's wed a muggle snake trainer and that they are planning to combine our world with the filthy muggles!"

"Shhhh!" whispered the same man from before, "The ministry is trying to keep this quiet, they don't want it spreading around."

Elowen stood out of the group, aware of the fact that they didn't want her there anyway. She did want to keep listening, she did enjoy the harmless piece of gossip every now and then, but she wanted to leave before the conspiracy theory's started. Ever since Voldermort had died, a new rumour would start up after a couple of months claiming he had returned. Last year it was that he had become a new teacher at Hogwarts under an alias, and the year before that he was apparently reincarnated as a ferret.

"But, if it was real," She thought to herself, "Wouldn't that be a story."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So how was your day with Grandmother, Luna?" Xeno asked, his mouth full of the dinner laid out on his plate.

"We went shopping in the city, and I bought this," Luna answered, her tiny fingers grasping around her new necklace. "Grandmother said that it will protect me from the Nargles"

"Dangerous things those," Elowen said, a look of mock concern on her face,

"Don't listen to your silly mother," Said Xeno, "Just because she doesn't believe in them."

"I never said that, I've only ever said that I personally haven't seen them. But then I never believed in the Barshalts and now we have a whole colony of them eating my herbs, so I may be wrong about these creatures." Elowen replied defensively, "I do wish I had believed those rumours, then maybe my herb garden would still be active today"

That triggered something in her mind, and memories of the gossip this afternoon came flooding back.

"Oh Xeno! I have to talk to you about…." Elowen trailed off, noticing her daughter was listening. "Luna, darling, how bout you go check on the bird outside, I think I saw him wearing your hat."

As Luna toddled off, Xenophilius turned to his wife.

"We really should do something about that bird, you would think he was a small play with all the clothing he has been taking."

"That isn't what I need to talk about" said Elowen, her tone turning serious.

She explained about the rumours and about how the ministry was apparently trying to cover it up. Elowen had never liked the ministry. She didn't believe with the way they dealt with things and had published hundreds of articles uncovering them.

"I want to be able to publish an article about this, just spreading the word that maybe it could be truth. Even if it isn't right then it will simply be a funny story about the rumours, please let me do this, love."

Her husband smiled a weak smile. He didn't want to start criticising the ministry again. Last time Elowen exposed them; a very cross-looking employee and a death-eater visited her, and she barely got off with a warning. But he knew that once she got started on something there was no use trying to stop her, even if he tried really hard.

Luna burst through the door, holding a pair of shoes, a hat and an umbrella in her bundled arms.

"I think he was trying to court a nice lady bird," smiled Luna, "wouldn't that be heavenly? They could start a lovely little family right there in our tree."

Upon think of the bird family, Luna broke into a fit of giggles.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Standing in front of an aged newspaper stand, Elowen held a copy of The Quibbler. It was still warm from the printer and the ink smudged against the brush of her fingertips. Below the bold heading read her title, "Has The Dark Lord Risen?" She smiled; there was always a sense of satisfaction when one of her stories was printed. She would deal with the repercussions later, but for this moment, she was happy.

"Excuse me, miss"

Elowen turned, her blonde hair whipping against her face.

The voice belonged to a man; he was old and fairly built. His long over-coat billowed around him, flowing in the wind.

"I've heard you were the one working on the story about 'you-know-who' and I've come to convince you otherwise."

He looked down at the newspaper in her hands, his calm expression melting into a frustrated manner.

"Well, I see you've already published it." He said staring straight through her brown eyes. "Well then, I'm sorry but I have no choice. I work for the Ministry of Magic, Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and you have been sent with a final warning. If this type of behaviour continues then we will have to take action. We have everything you have ever done in out file systems, Mrs. Lovegood.

We are watching you."

And in an instant, he had vanished.


	2. Part 2: Final Warning

Elowen's eyes did not widen in shock, her round glasses did not fall off, nor did she even show a sign of surprise or fear. Instead, she simply smiled.

"Another warning," She thought to herself, "I think that makes five now."

Elowen laughed, the light tinkling of her giggles echoed around her ears as she handed over the money for her newspaper.

Her husband stood outside of their work building, his expression furrowed in worry.

"Who was that?" He asked. Bringing his wife into a strong hug.

"Oh, the one who apparated? Just another worker for the ministry, he didn't give me his name though." She chuckled, "It seems that I have been given another warning, love. I swear the ministry is just like that poltergeist who lives in my sock drawer, all bark and no bite."

She chuckled again, taking her husband's hand.

Within the week, the news was everywhere.

"The dark lord has returned!"

"Quibbler states that Voldermort is back!"

"Is the Ministry lying to us?"

Every paper in town had a story about Voldermort's apparent return. Elowen's little article inspired every other newspaper to cover the same issue. As long as the journalist could blame the story on another source, they could publish anything. You can't get in trouble for something someone else did.

The whole wizarding world was in a panic. Stores shut down, police were everywhere and everybody and their cat was claiming they had seen him.

The minister himself had to appear on TV, but it takes more than one program to assure whole countries that what they had seen on every news station was not true.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Elowen was walking home; she took the uninhabited path, surrounded by wildlife.

As her feet trode across the earthy path, she heard a noise behind her. It was faint, barely able to be heard, but she had definitely heard something. She twisted her neck, ever so slightly, but couldn't see anything.

It continued like this for sometime.

She was giving advice to the trees and their love lives, when she heard the noise again, louder then before. She turned around quickly, her whole body rotating so she could quickly glimpse what was behind her. But she wasn't quick enough.

A cloud of grey and black came flying towards her, it seemed to run through her, slipping through her fingers like smoke. It turned, flying through for a second time. Elowen crashed to the ground, her hands flimsily waving around her head. She tried to protect herself, but it was no use, she was helpless.

The Dementor came face to face with her, its rotting hand out to her. Its bony, decaying fingers grasped her pale skin, forcing her to look straight at it. The gaping hole in the middle of its face grew wider, twisting and morphing as it sucked out her happiness.

"Stop!" came a sharp voice from behind the shadow of the trees.

The Dementor screeched, pausing before flying out of sight.

"We warned you, Mrs. Lovegood." Said the man, stepping out of the shadows. His face was clouded by darkness, but she recognised the voice from the other day.

"I told you we know everything. We knew you usually take this path on weekends, we know what pub your husband visits and," he paused, "we know where your beautiful little daughter is."

The man walked up to her. She was lying on the ground, barely able to speak, let alone get up. He flung his foot forwards, hitting Elowen's eye with a sharp thud. She screamed in pain, her eye swelling up.

"You have become quite an inconvenience to the ministry." He said, then walked back into the shadows.

When Elowen awoke, she was safely on the couch in her home.

"You're awake!" Said Xenophilius, rushing to his wife. "We found you unconscious near the forest."

Elowen shot up, the pillows and quilts propping her head tumbled to the ground.

"The ministry!" she shouted, still to woozy to stand, "I have to write a story, people need to know."

Before she could do anything, her legs gave way, sending her toppling to the couch. She fainted again, the effort of standing too much for her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Elowen sat at her desk, surrounded by potions.

She had always loved her potions class at Hogwarts, and ever since fourth year, whenever she became stressed she would try to experiment.

The pinks and blues of aconite and moonstone, danced in front of her as she mixed the two together. When she saw the colours of the potions she forgot all about the events of this morning, the sparkling toxins seemed to entrance her mind.

"Oh Luna, darling you're back." She said, noticing her daughter in the doorframe. "Can you do me a HUGE favour and grab those flowers for me outside, near that…"

Elowen trailed off, as her daughter skipped out of the room. She was unsure of what she was seeing, but she could have sworn she saw something move out there, something large. She convinced herself she was just being paranoid; her mind was simply playing tricks on her. But in the back of her mind she was sure that she had seen someone out there.

"If you're trying to scare me, Ministry, it's not working. The people need to know what you are doing, and I'm not going to give up." She muttered, barely under her breath.

The second she said this, something moved near her window.

"If that's how it is going to be, then we have no choice…"

It was said almost to quickly to be heard, a whisper that was lost among the wind. But Elowen had heard it.

She took a deep breath.

This was it.

"Avada Kedavra!"

A flash of light came through her window, hitting her on the chest. Her shoulders flew back and she strained her neck, the pain surging through her body was unbearable, but she new soon it would be over. Soon everything would be over.

She fell to the ground, dead.

Her lifeless body went limp, right arm outstretched, her cold, glassy eyes stuck in an eternal stare.

"Mother?" Luna said, walking through the doorframe.

She stopped. Dropping the blooming flowers she was holding.

"Mother? Mother?" Screamed Luna, rushing to her mother's side.

"Please wake up," She whispered, "Please wake up."


End file.
